The story of the death of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, blown up in 1931, began almost a decade and a half before its physical destruction with a fact not directly related to the demolition of the temple. In 1918, a monument to Emperor Alexander III was dismantled in the park near the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. The decree on the monuments of the republic, adopted by the Council of People's Commissars on April 12, 1918, read: “Monuments erected in honor of the kings and their servants and not of interest either from the historical or artistic side are subject to removal from the squares and streets and partly transferred to warehouses, part of the use of a utilitarian nature … . The cultural, social, ideological, state policy of the new government left little chance for old Russia. The tragic statistics of the first years of the revolution record the killings of clergymen,confiscation of church property, opening of holy relics, prohibition of religious processions, desecration of churches and monasteries, their closure. The first demolitions of churches were bashfully justified by the need to widen and straighten streets in order to solve transport problems. In June 1928, a meeting in the agitation and propaganda department of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks on anti-religious propaganda began the era of a frenzied attack on religion. Already in the first half of 1929, more than 400 churches were closed in the country, and the pace was growing: in August, another 103 churches suffered the same fate. At the end of 1929, for the first time, perhaps the most blasphemous action of the 20th century was held - anti-Christmas timed to coincide with the holiday of the Nativity of Christ - a mocking celebration: about 100 thousand people gathered in the A. M. Gorky Park of Culture and Leisure in Moscow. “… spontaneously flashed there,here there are bonfires made of icons, religious books, caricature models, 'coffins of religion', etc. “At the Krasnye Khamovniki skating rink there was a performance: 'Gods and priests rushed with church songs, waving crosses, for a five-year period, a detachment of Budennovites appeared and fired a volley, the church caught fire from the shots …”.
1929 was a turning point in one more respect. The technique of destruction of buildings has changed - they began to blow up …
In 1930, there were already two campaigns - anti-Easter and anti-Christmas, in 1931 - too. They were held under the slogan "For godless Moscow, for a godless collective farm village."
“We set the task,” wrote the leaders of the Union of Militant Atheists, “to achieve the closure of churches and other houses of prayer in Moscow in workers' centers and in areas of total collectivization, as well as the dissolution of Church Councils…”.
And so, against this background, in an atmosphere of the rise of godless shock workers and anti-religious hysteria, the Soviet leadership made a decision to demolish the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and to build a grandiose building of the Palace of Soviets in its place. The proposal to erect a "new palace of workers and toiling peasants" (there are also non-working peasants! - SD) on the site of the "palaces of bankers, landowners and tsars" was made by S. Kirov at the I Congress of Soviet Deputies, held in 1922. And in 1924 the need arose to perpetuate the memory of V. I. Lenin in connection with his death. At first, both ideas existed separately, and only at a certain stage the idea of uniting in one grandiose construction of a monument to the leader of the world proletariat and the Palace of Soviets arises. Another starting point in the development of the movement, which ultimately led to the destruction of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior,was published on February 2, 1924, an article by L. B. Krasin, who proposed to perpetuate the memory of V. I. Lenin in a number of architectural monuments throughout the USSR. And so, in 1924, a proposal appeared by a graduate of VKHUTEMAS, one of the leaders of the Association of New Architects (ASNOVA) V. Balikhin, who in fact managed to synthesize the proposals of Kirov and Krasin into a single architectural program. Balikhin proposed to erect a grandiose building on the site of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, which should simultaneously become a monument to Lenin, the Comintern and the formation of the USSR. Balikhin, who in fact managed to synthesize the proposals of Kirov and Krasin into a single architectural program. Balikhin proposed to erect a grandiose building on the site of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, which should simultaneously become a monument to Lenin, the Comintern and the formation of the USSR. Balikhin, who in fact managed to synthesize the proposals of Kirov and Krasin into a single architectural program. Balikhin proposed to erect a grandiose building on the site of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, which should simultaneously become a monument to Lenin, the Comintern and the formation of the USSR.
But the proposal to erect a monument to Lenin on the site of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior seemed at first blasphemous even to party functionaries who did not dare to immediately replace the temple in the name of the God-man with a monument to the leader deified in this way in the mass consciousness - a monument to the "man-god". The Soviet government began to implement Kirov's proposal to create the Palace almost 10 years later - at the beginning of 1931. In February - May 1931, the first preliminary competition for the construction of the Palace of Soviets was organized, which was of a closed nature and paid particular attention to the choice of the site for the monument.
On June 2, 1931, at a meeting held in Molotov's office, the fate of the temple was finally decided - by the personal order of JV Stalin, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior was intended to be demolished for the construction of the "main building of the country" - the Palace of Soviets in its place.
On June 16, 1931, at a meeting of the Committee on Religious Affairs under the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, the following resolution was adopted: “In view of the allotment of the site on which the Cathedral of Christ the Savior is located, for the construction of the Palace of Soviets, this temple should be liquidated and demolished. Instruct the Presidium of the Moscow Oblast Executive Committee to liquidate (close) the church within ten days and provide the community of believers and the Synod with the appropriate premises. The petition of the economic department of the OGPU for gold washing and the petition of the construction of the Palace of Soviets for the transfer of building material to be submitted to the secretariat of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee.
Promotional video:
On July 18, 1931, Izvestia publishes the "Decree on the competition for drafting the Palace of Soviets" on the site of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Only in 1933, on May 10, by the resolution of the Council for the Construction of the Palace of Soviets, the project of the architect B. Iofan was adopted as a basis, according to which (after its revision with the involvement of co-authors - architects A. Shchuko and G. Gelfreich), the temple was to be replaced by a giant “Babel tower ", Crowned with a colossal statue of Lenin (given the low clouds, the monument would have been visible in its entirety on the clearest, sunny days). The total height of the Palace of the Soviets would be 415 meters (it should have become the highest not only in Moscow, but throughout the world). A very advantageous place from a town planning point of view - the temple stood on a hill, was easily visible from all sides and was located near the Kremlin,as well as the totality of some anniversary dates, became the reason for the haste with which the decision was made to demolish the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. 1932 marked the 120th anniversary of the Patriotic War of 1812 - 1814 and the 100th anniversary of the publication of the Manifesto signed by Nicholas I on the construction of the temple, designed by K. A. Ton. The temple is a symbol of old Russia - Orthodox, bourgeois, merchant - the national Temple-monument should not have celebrated its centenary. In addition, there were two more anniversaries in 1932: the 15th anniversary of the October Revolution and the 10th anniversary of the creation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, which I wanted to celebrate with the beginning of the construction of a grandiose monument to perpetuate both of these events. A new Moscow was to be formed around the Palace of Soviets, in which there would be no place for the "accursed past and its monuments."
Preparations for the dismantling of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior began immediately after the publication on July 18, 1931 in Izvestia of the resolution on the competition for the design of the Palace of Soviets. However, “public opinion” was being prepared for several years, long and without direct connection with the demolition of the temple. A real persecution of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior was launched: academicians of architecture publicly swore that it had no artistic value and was not a work of art. They did not hesitate to either openly lie or denigrate Russian history; in the general stream of lies and abuse, the lonely voices of those who tried to stop the crime were drowning. Among the few defenders is the artist Apollinaris Mikhailovich Vasnetsov, the son of a priest, a native of the Vyatka land, a Muscovite with his soul, who praised the ancient capital in his canvases. Let's pay tribute to the blessed memory of this Russian man and all the defenders of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. On the day of the publication of the decree on the competition (July 18, 1931), the Commission organized by the Commissariat of Public Education began to operate to identify valuables subject to museification in the more than once robbed Cathedral of Christ the Savior (the values were removed from the sacristy of the temple several times). As a result of the work that lasted for a month, the Commission compiled a list of monuments to be preserved: small fragments of wall paintings, a small part of church utensils, several high reliefs were recognized as objects of artistic value and transferred to museums. Everything else was lost forever. On the day of the publication of the decree on the competition (July 18, 1931), the Commission organized by the Commissariat of Public Education began to operate to identify valuables subject to museification in the more than once robbed Cathedral of Christ the Savior (the values were removed from the sacristy of the temple several times). As a result of the work that lasted for a month, the Commission compiled a list of monuments to be preserved: small fragments of wall paintings, a small part of church utensils, several high reliefs were recognized as objects of artistic value and transferred to museums. Everything else was lost forever. On the day of the publication of the decree on the competition (July 18, 1931), the Commission organized by the Commissariat of Public Education began to operate to identify valuables subject to museification in the more than once robbed Cathedral of Christ the Savior (the values were removed from the sacristy of the temple several times). As a result of the work that lasted for a month, the Commission compiled a list of monuments to be preserved: small fragments of wall paintings, a small part of church utensils, several high reliefs were recognized as objects of artistic value and transferred to museums. Everything else was lost forever. As a result of the work that lasted for a month, the Commission compiled a list of monuments to be preserved: small fragments of wall paintings, a small part of church utensils, several high reliefs were recognized as objects of artistic value and transferred to museums. Everything else was lost forever. As a result of the work that lasted for a month, the Commission compiled a list of monuments to be preserved: small fragments of wall paintings, a small part of church utensils, several high reliefs were recognized as objects of artistic value and transferred to museums. Everything else was lost forever.
On August 18, 1931, exactly one month after the publication in Izvestia of the decree on the competition for the Palace of Soviets, on the site of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, work began to dismantle it. The area adjacent to the temple was surrounded by a fence. In the fall of 1931, the dismantling of the building was already in full swing, both outside and inside at the same time. The work was carried out in a great hurry: the roof and dome sheathing sheets were thrown down, breaking the cladding and sculptures. The cross thrown from the temple did not fall down, but got stuck in the reinforcement of the dome. The handsome temple was dying before the eyes of all Moscow and Russia. It was not possible to disassemble the temple to the ground, then it was decided to blow it up.
December 5, 1931 at 12 noon Temple-monument of military glory, the main temple of Russia was barbarously destroyed. After the first explosion, the temple resisted, it was necessary to lay a new charge of explosives. It was all over in a few hours. The national spiritual shrine of Russia was turned into ruins …
The metro stations "Kropotkinskaya" and "Okhotny Ryad" were laid out with marble from the temple, the benches were decorated with the station "Novokuznetskaya". Some of the slabs with the names of the heroes of the Patriotic War of 1812 were crumbled and sprinkled on paths in Moscow parks, and some were used to decorate city buildings …